Want to take a bath? Don´t go inside the Roman Baths in Bath...the water is smelly and far tooo hot....
No, but of course go and visit them. In the middle of roman ruins and old well preserved sones you find a hot spring. 46 degrees centigrade ar enough to boil your feet or hands a bit if you put them in. You can do that in the Great Bath in the middle of the Roman Baths and Museum, the water is pleasantly green there. Put a few coins in another bath - meaning you want to return back - and have a look at the first floor heating of the world. All done by the Romans. And the plumbers were good in those time: the water still runs in the old-fashioned ways it used to run 2000 years ago.
What I liked most around the Baths: you can go around in the museum at your own speed and stop at certain numbers that give you information - as much as you want. You can also just pass by and look at the exhibits. Most impressive are the two heads you can see therecarved of stone: one is Minerva and the other is the Gorgon’s head. And they´re in pretty good shape. And: thanks to the museum designers the walk is very enjoyable, you have lots of modern features like computer simulations or "talking" people showing scenes from Roman Life.
Well ...who discovered the spring and founded baths? Apparently it was a man searching for his pigs that got lost, and he found them in a warm water puddle full of mud. Then he discovered that the sows got healthy as apparently they had sores before. So even before the Roman Times it was a miraculous place, but as the Romans were very well organized they built a bath around the spring. That´s it, until today.
From the Baths you have a brilliant view (take a photo-stop!) onto Bath Abbey. It is called the "Lantern of the South" because it has got more windows than walls! You have two ladders with angles climbing up into the sky, but watch out for the one on the left near the top: he tripped and is just falling down the ladder again....
The place in front of the Abbey and the Baths is nice for sitting and watching other tourists passing by. Or take a stroll along the river Avon (yes, the one that visits Shakespeare´s Stratford, too), you can also take a river cruise. Start at Pultney bridge, a bridge with shops on both sides (like in Florence). It was built by Robert Adam in 1771 and has very nice but expensive shops.
But: Bath wouldn´t be a world heritage site without someone else: John Wood the Younger . He was the top architect around the 1770 and built two amazing places: The Crescient and another square - let´s say circle - of houses. All in splendid Georgian style, row howses of the finest. I was told it costs 300.000 Pounds to rent one of the houses for a year! (but not really sure about that..)
Of course he didn´t just do those houses, you can see his handwriting all over the town. If you get closer to Bath, you can see the city lying in the sunlight,caramel coloured and shining like no other town i have seen. All houses made of the same stone in this yellowish coulour, Georgian style...just great. In rain it´s not that good, and some houses need refurbishment, but it´s nevertheless MARVELLOUS.
If you want a original Bath bun: go to Sally Lunn’s house,the oldest house in Bath . It was built in 1482 - but the buns don´t taste like from this time. They´re just good an well worth the price. You can also visit a kitchen museum, but I didn´t like that particulary. Too well known ;-) Might be that Jane Austen bought one of Sally´s buns, too, she lived in Bath during her youth and teenage age.
If you want to go shopping: well, the tourist parts are all very expensive. But if you leave the square in front of the Abbey turn left or right into the pedestrian zone, and you´ve got plenty of big stores like Sainsburys etc. Or there´s a big supermarket near the post office. Drop your postcards and get a helping of what you need, that´s cheapest.
As you read this review: I LOVE Bath...one of my favourite cities. Not only because of the lovely Paddington Shop there....the nightlife is also good. Best just to ask a local which club to go to. There are loads of small ones.
If you need a good place to stay and haven´t got money: go to the Youth Hostel /YMCA...it´s just vice versa the HILTON... and YOUR viev there is much better!!!
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